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The Bollywood to South Beach Voyage - Regent Seven Seas Voyager, October 29-December 18, 2009

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Twenty-two

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November 22 (Sunday, Day 25, Cape Town, South Africa) -

The Voyager, from Table Mountain

Our shore excursion this morning was to Table Mountain which gets its name from the flat-topped central massif of the mountain. We’ve been very fortunate from a weather standpoint since it has been clear and sunny since we docked. Sometimes Table Mountain is surrounded by clouds. We took the bus to the cable car station and then rode 3,477 feet up the rest of the way. We walked around the entire top of the mountain and saw Cape Town, the Cape Peninsula and really a 360° view of everything below.

More after the jump . . .

The Table Mountain cable car--it's a long way up

Cape Town from the top of Table Mountain

Rocks. Lots of rocks.

Yellow flowers

White Flowers

Pretty little bird

Another white flower

Our adventurers over Cape Town

Cape Town is proud to be one of the hosts of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Semi-finals and a helicopter was pulling a banner saying that it was 200 days from now. A new 68,000-seat stadium is being built in the middle of the city, too, that our guide said wouldn’t really ever be filled after the World Cup games since there aren’t that many people in Cape Town interested in an event.

The Stadium (upper left), the Voyager (top just right of center) and the Mount Nelson Hotel (pink building, just below and to the right of the center of the picture)

We returned to the ship and decided to walk around V&A Waterfront and to eat on the economy. We paid $18 for a “fish and chips for 2” meal that consisted of linefish, the catch of the day, prawns, mussels, rice and chips. Then we purchased our travel wall painting that we found on Friday but didn’t buy in case we found something better. It’s of Table Mountain. We also bought two lightweight high-tech material travel shirts from a safari outfitter company.

The Golden Seal--actually a sea lion

We got back to the ship a few minutes before “all aboard” and from our balcony watched two Cape seals (really sea lions) court each other for around 20 minutes. It was as if they were putting on a private ballet just for us! Filbert ordered champagne for his own sail away party and after 1.5 hours (and a second phone call) a warm bottle was delivered. We ended up going to the public sail away party on deck 11 and ran into Monica and Joel. As soon as the ship started moving, 3 hats went flying and Snookums was able to save them for their owners. The party pretty much broke up at that point due to the high winds.

We had dinner at Prime 7 to celebrate our 5th anniversary. Not only did they screw up 3 of the 5 side dishes that were ordered, they served milk in a dripping wet glass and said “It must have just come out of the dishwasher”. The “freshly grated horseradish” that came with Filbert’s prime rib was a pile of dry white twigs. And, they never recognized our anniversary. Snookums wrote her second letter to the Food and Beverage Manager about these issues as well as the warm champagne that was delivered this afternoon. She also wanted to know where her Caffeine Free Diet Coke was that she special ordered 6 months ago. (In response to her first letter earlier in the cruise, she was told that the cans that were delivered to the ship were outdated and they were not allowed to serve them. The Food and Beverage Manager said he was trying to order more as soon as possible but the remoteness of our ports might mean they don’t arrive until Cape Town.)

Courting seals (actually sea lions)

Next: PeliCANS!!!!!